
Spotlight on Breast Cancer
Between 15 and 20 Swedish women receive the diagnosis of breast cancer every day, making this the most common cancer among women. Read more about how scientists at Karolinska Institutet are working to reduce the mortality rates for this disease and improve treatments.
Menu for this area

Hormonal breast cancer treatment reduces long-term risk of recurrence
To investigate the long-term benefit of hormone-lowering treatment, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have done a 20-year follow-up of premenopausal women with breast cancer. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicates that the treatment provides protection even after a longer period of time and that different patients seem to benefit from different hormonal treatments.

Study identifies new protection mechanism in breast cancer
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a protein that protects against breast tumour growth and that can be linked to a better prognosis in breast cancer patients. The results, which are published in the journal Nature Communications, may contribute to the development of new therapies for difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer.

Cervical samples could reveal risk of breast and ovarian cancer
An international team of scientists, including from Karolinska Institutet, has discovered a means of identifying the risk of breast and ovarian cancer by analysing cell samples from the cervix. By measuring epigenetic changes in cervical samples from over a thousand women, the researchers have found two unique signatures for breast and ovarian cancer. The results are presented in two papers in the journal Nature Communications.

Praised for his research on breast cancer prevention
The Breast Cancer Association's award 2021 goes to chief physician and KI professor Per Hall. He is recognized for his broad research on how breast cancer can be prevented and detected early with refined and individual methods.
Latest news from KI on breast cancer
Meet some of our researchers

Finding the right treatment with precision pathology
Johan Hartman is developing new diagnostic methods for predicting therapeutic responses and judging relapse risk in cancer. The methods range from patient-derived three-dimensional tumour models to AI-aided risk assessment.

Biostatistician contributing to breast cancer epidemiology
Keith Humphreys develops and uses statistical methods for epidemiological research. He has a special interest in breast cancer risk assessment and in the studying the effectiveness of mammography screening.

Using AI to diagnose breast cancer at an earlier stage
Although mammography has dramatically reduced mortality rates for breast cancer, current technology still misses almost one third of cases. There is also a serious shortage of radiologists. Researchers believe that these problems can be solved by artificial intelligence (AI).

Find other KI researchers in breast cancer
Cancer Research KI is an umbrella organisation for all cancer research at Karolinska Institutet. Find breast cancer researchers in their database.